I’m glad to see Jeff Soyer calling out this worthless AP article too. It’s very similar to the stories the media was pushing leading up to the 1994 federal assault weapons ban. No doubt that the media would love to see another one. Even the lies are the same:

“In the early ’80s to ’90s, it was more common to have a handgun in your waistband and the bigger the caliber, the more powerful you were,” Baixauli said. “Now it’s escalated to the assault weapons.”

Gee, that’s what they said about the ’70s and ’80s, when they were trying to pass assault weapons bans in the ’90s.

Another issue potentially at play is the 2004 expiration of the federal assault weapons ban, 10 years after its passage. The legislation outlawed 19 types of guns, including the semiautomatic AK-47.

Funny, I bought my semiautomatic AK-47 during the ban.

The guns are readily available on streets, [ATF agent Carlos] Baixauli said, or can be ordered by mail for under $200.

I would hope ATF agents would be aware that it is unlawful for someone to mail order a firearm. Only federal firearms licensees are permitted to ship firearms through common carriers. Ordinary citizens may do it only in very limited circumstances, such as sending a gun in for warranty service. Does the ATF not teach federal gun laws to their agents? I’m betting they do, but a new assault weapons ban would be a very good thing for the ATF. It would mean more agents and resources getting involved in enforcing it. I guess it’s OK to lie, if it’s for a good cause, isn’t it?

Shootings involving assault weapons were among the reasons U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta set up an anti-gang task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officials this year. He assigned 15 federal prosecutors, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Greenberg, to the effort.

“These bullets are very powerful: they go through walls, they go through cars, and if you just spray the general vicinity you’re going to get innocent bystanders,” Acosta said. “A shooting that might have been an injury previously is now a death.”

Here we go with the spraying again. How exactly does a semi-automatic firearm “spray” bullets? Any center fire rifle cartridge shares these properties. The press just eats this stuff up. No tough questions, no research, no bothering to seek out alternate opinions, or verifying anything they’ve been told. And they wonder why newspaper circulation is way down.

Well, illegal drugs can also be mailed to homes, though it is a violation of numerous laws (and the Post Office tries to stop that activity).

Last I heard, 2% of recovered firearms were “assault weapons” (that may be a statistic for an individual state — I can’t remember). Considering that all rifles only make up 5-10% of recovered weapons, this seems reasonable*.

*I know there were some handguns that also count as “assault weapons”, but pols seem to focus mostly on rifles.

I never spelled “down” that way before. One more drink and I could become an “authorized journalist”. Done, does not a down make, however let’s just consider it a Freudian slip that has predictive accuracy as its basis.

Yeah, that’s the ticket, I didn’t really screw up, Iwas just more erudite than I knew at the moment. That’s my story and I’m…………..